Sherlock Holmes, originally a book, has been adapted into a popular TV series in the UK. It’s a British crime show, and has been highly praised for its writing and production. It follows the life of Sherlock Holmes who acts as a consultant for the police, and uses his remarkable observation techniques and skills to solve a crime.

The TV series follows the same procedure as most crime and detective shows. It starts out with the initial crime; a number of suspects are named, and final plot twists. Most modern police and detective shows follow this procedural, but they approach it in a unique way, so it isn’t just ‘another cop show’. The character developments and traits are what make this show unique to others, and make it very desirable to a large audience.

The show is very culturally English; it uses many aspects of the typical English lifestyle, such as drinking tea, and just their way of thinking, which makes it appeal in the UK. However, it also appeals internationally as well, because it contains international elements that appeal to that audience as well. The different take and unique approaches the producers make for the show appeal to everyone, and it can be seen as the reason why American producers have attempted to re-create it locally in America, with it’s own American twist on it. But as you could probably tell, it didn’t turn out that well.

The TV series ‘Elementary’ first aired in late 2012, and is set in New York. You can instantly see the difference of choices when producing the show because of their cultural differences. For example, they cast a female to play the role of Moriarty, who is pictured as a male in the books, and in the English series. This is seen as a form of ‘Political Correctness’, and could also be associated with the large rise of Feminism in America.

Just by comparing these two series, we can instantly see the difference in film culture, and what changes and personal touches they add to make it appeal locally. Sometimes it doesn’t always work, and my favourite example would be ‘The Inbetweeners’. What a disaster that was in America.

Bollywood, is India’s take on Bollywood. They have their own style of film and cinematography, and is very independent compared to Hollywood films. There are plenty of reasons why Bollywood is what it is today.

People associate Bollywood with ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, when in reality, it was actually co-produced by two UK film companies. It’s a western Hollywood film with Indian and Hindi themes and a strong cultural presence. It promoted Bollywood and Indian culture unintentionally throughout western civilisations.

Firstly, the economics behind the industry is always important, because it creates the drive and the incentive to create films and work in the field. The Indian economical Liberalization in 1991 strongly affected the film industry, and the first major films to come out of Bollywood were created around this time. The Indian government can be thanked for this, because they created economic relationships with other countries around the world, and they created global networks, which involuntarily promoted and created funding, as well as the demand for Bollywood style films.

With all this talk of economics, who is actually profiting from Bollywood? Well I hypothesise that Indian culture is profiting, because regardless of what industry it is, Indian culture is always profiting. It’s hard to say which industry is actually profiting off Indian style films, because more than one industry create them.

Filmmakers act as Bricoleurs, so they essentially mix global and local elements to appeal to most audiences’ tastes and trends. This is a marketing technique used by Hollywood to seem more international, and to appeal to that demographic.

Bollywood has emerged as a large media entity because of the economics, the associations from already performing media industries, and the role of filmmakers. They produce more films than Hollywood per year, and is quickly becoming a large competitor for Hollywood.

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Sources:

Schaefer & Karan, DS & KK, 2010, ‘Problematizing Chindia: Hybridity and Bollywoodization of popular Indian cinema in global film flows’, Global Media and Communication, p.309-316